Alexandre Oliva's Home Page

As of June, 2005, I've joined the efforts to create FSF Latin America. I'm FSFLA's board member, and I maintain my blog there: Blonging for Freedom. Follow me on identi.ca.

I'm also a Compiler Engineer at Red Hat.

Every month or so, Islene and I upload new pictures and movies with (or taken by) Larissa, our firstborn. I've taken pictures of some of my trips as well. Movies are encoded in the Ogg Media format, with video encoded in Ogg Theora and audio with Ogg Vorbis. Here is some more info about this file format, including instructions to install Free Software to play it on various operating systems.

I used to be a Computer Science PhD student at the Distributed Systems Laboratory at the Institute of Computing of the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP). I've been away from research for a while, but I've been trying to wrap up the PhD lately. The research project has to do with optimization of access to thread-local storage in dynamic libraries.

My main technical interests are Compiler Optimization these days. In a previous life, I used to research Software Engineering, particularly Computational Reflection (read about it in the Guaraná Home Page) and Distributed Systems.

On Saturday, March 21, 2009, I first presented Linux-libre and the prisoners' dilemma at Libre Planet 2009, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

It was also presented on April 8, 2009, in Campinas, SP, as part of the Free Software Lectures series at University of Campinas, combined with Copying and Sharing in Self Defense and a summary of the Libre Planet 2009 conference. A Spanish version was recorded for FLISOL 2009, listen to this and other recorded speeches here The first live presentation in Spanish took place at the FLISOL 2009 Tour (in Spanish) in Panamá City, Panamá, on April 23, 2009. It was later presented on September 17, 2009, at COSECOL in Santo Domingo, República Dominicana, and it will be presented on October, 30, 2009, at Jornadas de Software Libre (pictures) en Cúcuta, Colombia.

It was first presented with slides in Portuguese at FISL 10, on June 27, 2009, and then on September 25, 2009, in the week-long Software Freedom Day celebration at IME-USP, on October 7, 2009, at ICMC-USP, and on November 11, 2009, at CESoL-CE 2009.

On June 25, 2009, at FISL 10, I first presented “A Isca, o Anzol e a Grande Rede”, describing visually the tactics that fishers use to capture software users with bait, hooks and the broad net. It's based on an article with the same title. It was also presented on September 2, 2009, at the Free Software Lectures series of the University of Campinas, on October 20, 2009, at 1st Free Software Forum in Duque de Caxias (pictures), on October 24, 2009, at LATINOWARE (pictures), on November 13, 2009, at CESoL-CE 2009, and in Spanish on September 17, 2009, at COSECOL in Santo Domingo, República Dominicana.

On Monday, January 19, 2009, FSFLA published my paper Copying and Sharing in Self Defense, written for publication in the proceedings of the first CESoL-CE, where the ideas were first brought up in a debate about the authoriterrorism bill in Brazil.

It was first presented as a full speech at Campus Party Brasil 2009, on January 22, 2009, with subtitle "Society versus Industry of the United States of Pãnic", alluding to a "novella" entitled "Union of the States of Pãnic" that intersperses another article, yet to appear as a chapter about licensing in a book to be published by Comunidade Sol.

It was also presented at EPICENTRO 1, on March 19, 2009 in São Paulo (watch a recording of the speech using Free Software rather than Obfuscript), at the lightning activism sessions at Libre Planet 2009, on March 22, 2009, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA (there are English slides, but they could not be used there); on April 8, 2009, in Campinas, SP, as part of the Free Software Lectures series at University of Campinas, on October 16, 2009, at Policamp, and on November 12, 2009, at CESoL-CE 2009

A Spanish version was recorded for FLISOL 2009, listen to this and other recorded speeches here. It was also presented on April 23, 2009, in Santiago, Veraguas province, Panamá, as part of the FLISOL 2009 Tour, as a keynote speech at , on April 25, 2009, with live transmission from Panamá City to several other FLISOL sites in Panamá and campi of the ULACIT network in other countries, and on September 15, 2009, as a keynote speech at COSECOL in Santo Domingo, República Dominicana.

On the week May 23-31, it was presented at the virtual conference 7º SENAED, as part of a blog on Copyright and Plagiarism. The presentation/transcript (in Portuguese) starts here. This speech was also presented at at FISL 10, on June 27, 2009.

On Tuesday, June 17, 2008, I presented "A Plan to Fix Local Variable Debug Information in GCC" at the GCC Summit 2008. The slides and examples are available. This work was also presented on August, 23, 2008, at CESoL-CE.

The next upcoming presentation is scheduled for Nov 4, 2009, at the Free Software Lectures series of the University of Campinas.

On Friday, April 18, 2008, the anti-non-Free Software speech that compares the harmful social and individual effects of tobacco (tabaco) and tobraco (trabaco). One of them is well known for causing dependency and impotence, having a powerful and unscrupulous industry promoting products while perfectly aware of the harmful consequences they bring to their customers; in fact, these businesses take advantage of the dependency and even enhance it to increase their gains. The other is just a plant from whose leaves cigarettes et al are made.

The picture mocks with a Brazilian cigarette brand curiously named Free, to denounce the tactics used to confuse customers of both tobacco and tobraco and misguide them to harm.

Slides are available in Portuguese, English, and Spanish.

This speech was also presented, in combination with "FSFLA's Coolest Works (2008)" on May 16, 2008, at the 1st Free Software Symposium of Santa Bárbara D'Oeste and surroundings at Faculdades Anhanguera, on June 24, 2008, at a meeting about Agile Methodologies for Development with Free Software at University of Campinas, on August, 22, 2008, at CESoL-CE, on August, 29, 2008, at CONSEGI, on September 17, 2008, at Semana de Atividades Integradas do CEATEC da PUC Campinas, on September 18, 2008, at Software Freedom Day in Santo André, SP, on October 20, 2008, at Universidade Anhanguera, Indaiatuba-SP, on October 23, 2008, at Universidade Católica, Pelotas-RS, and on November, 26, 2008, at EMSL'08 in Belo Horizonte, MG, and on April 7, 2009, at the University of Campinas, as part of the series of lectures organized by prof Claudia Bauzer.

It was first presented in Spanish at the 5th National Free Software Congress in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 17, 2009, and then on September 17, 2009, at COSECOL in Santo Domingo, República Dominicana.

Also on Friday, April 18, 2008, at FISL, FSFLA launched "O Porco e a Caixa", the translation to Brazilian Portuguese of MCM's "The Pig and the Box", a book that teaches the perils of DRM to children. I printed some 500 copies, but the organizers of FISL liked it so much that they announced in the closing session that we'd print 10000 copies for FISL 10. Yay!

On Fri 13th of April, 2007, I first presented Free Software and the Matrix at FISL 8.0. The presentation (in Portuguese, English and Spanish), the trailers and the sources are available here.

It was presented on April 28, 2007, at FLISoL Campinas; on May 2, 2007, at USP-EACH; on May 26, 2007 at IV ESLAM; on June 6, 2007 at SESOL3; on August 9, 2007 at 7mas Jornadas Regionales de Software Libre, in Córdoba, Argentina; on Oct 18, 2007 at Convención Visión 2007 in Lima, Peru; on Oct 18-20 at Encontro Mineiro de Software Livre in Lavras, Minas Gerais, Brazil (presented by José Monserrat Neto, thanks!); on Nov 19-21 at the Academic Week of Computing and Internet Systems at Univali, in Itajaí, SC, Brazil (presented by Fabricio Bortoluzzi); on Dec 5, 2007, at VI Semana [GNU/]Linux Universidad Distrital, in Bogota, Colombia; on March 4, 2009, opening the Free Software Lectures series at University of Campinas; and on April 15, 2009, transmitted on FLISOL TV out of Panamá City, as part of pre-events; on May 9, 2009, by Tiago Maluta to the freshmen at Federal University of Itajubá; and at the 5th National Free Software Congress in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 18, 2009.

I've talked about this in detail on Aug 10, 2007, at FSFLA's presentation at 7mas Jornadas Regionales de Software Libre, in Córdoba, Argentina, and I'll do so again on Dec 6, 2007, at VI Semana [GNU/]Linux Universidad Distrital, in Bogota, Colombia.

On April 25, 2008, FSFLA liberated IRPF-Livre 2008, announced here.

On April 17, 2009, FSFLA liberated liberated IRPF-Livre 2009, announced here.

On April 14, 2007, I first presented "Magic mirror on the net, what's the fairest license yet? A GPLv3 fairness tale." at FISL 8.0, discussing the fairness improvements of GPLv3 over version 2 with a Snow White coloring.

It was also presented on June 8, 2007 at SESOL3 and on Aug 11, 2007, at 7mas Jornadas Regionales de Software Libre, in Córdoba, Argentina; on Oct 4, 2007, at Fórum Software Livre Rio de Janeiro; Oct 20, 2007 at ./Freedom & Open Source Day, part of Convención Visión 2007 in Lima, Peru (watch the video); on Nov 13-14, 2007 at Latinoware in Foz do Iguaçu, Brasil; and on Dec 17, 2007, at UMeet 2007, an on-line conference.

On March 27, a new presentation "Software Livre: Um Bem Necessário" (Free Software: a Necessary Good) was first presented at the Regional Symposium on Digital Inclusion, organized by CDI Campinas. On March 28, it was at AtualTec 2007. It was to be presented again at FLISoL 2007, on April 28, but, by popular demand, Free Software and The Matrix was presented.

On Aug 25, 2006, I first presented "As Ações Mais Legais da FSFLA" (the coolest/most legal FSFLA actions) at Festival de Software Livre da Bahia, in Lauro de Freitas. Congratulations to the organizers for the great event! I took a few pictures and recorded my presentations (in Portuguese).

In that presentation, I talk about the preference for Free Software encoded in the Brazilian Constitution, which we argue about in the context of the inconstitutionality case raised against the Free Software law in Rio Grande do Sul. Read more about it in FSFLA's news bulletin #14.

It was presented again on Oct 18, 2006, at the IV Fórum de Software Livre do Rio de Janeiro, and on Oct 20, 2006, at the III Fórum Cearense de Software Livre.

A shortened version was presented in a round table on copyrights, patents and Free Software on May 26, 2007 at IV ESLAM.

An adapted English version of this speech was presented on Nov 21, 2006, at the 5th International GPLv3 Conference in Tokyo, Japan. A video of the presentation is available out of the conference web site. I took a few pictures while I was there.

The latest presentation of this English version was on December 13, 2006, as part of UMeet 2006. A recording (IRC logs) is available here.

On April 13, 2007, an updated version of this speech was delivered by all FSFLA board members, at FISL 8.0.

In general, I play this great movie on Trusted Computing after talking about DRM.

It was also presented on May 25, 2007 at IV ESLAM.

It was presented for the first time in Spanish on August 10, 2007, at 7mas Jornadas Regionales de Software Libre, in Córdoba, Argentina. A slightly extended version was presented on Dec 6, 2007, at VI Semana [GNU/]Linux Universidad Distrital, in Bogota, Colombia.

The 2008 version of this speech updates on Softwares Impostos, Free Open Standards, and launches, on April 18, at FISL, the first print of the Brazilian Portuguese translation of MCM's "The Pig and the Box" and FSFLA's "¡Sé Libre!" (Be Free!) campaign for the promotion of the fundamental social values of the Free Software movement. It was also presented on August, 21, 2008, at CESoL-CE, and elsewhere, combined with the campaign against tobraco. The apology to software users portion at the end of this speech was recorded in Spanish for FLISOL 2009, listen to this and other recorded speeches here

October 1, 2006, is elections day in Brazil. The "ultimate" electronic voting system used in Brazil enables results to be published just a few hours after polls are closed. And there has never been any proof of corruption in the results. If you can read Portuguese, see why that's not surprising. You may also be interested in the Free Software program I wrote that attempts to present results for the polls, similarly to the MS-Windows-only program that the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) publishes.

Glauber talked about his port of these ideas to ARM at [GNU/]Linux Kongress 2006 on Sept 8.

For FISL 7.0, in April 2006, I came up with the presentation O Poder Libertador do Segundo Dedo (that translates to English as The Freeing Power of the Second Finger). Besides the important Free Software-related issues that I feel I always have to talk about, it shows how Free Software users at an advantage position over proprietary software users, especially corporate ones, because while both recognize the need for support (pointing to someone when things go wrong), only Free Software users can use another finger, without the fear of getting to a dead end, when things keep on going wrong. A poor-ish recording of the presentation at the Festival de Software Livre da Bahia, in Portuguese, is available here.

It was presented again on Oct 17, 2006, at the IV Fórum de Software Livre do Rio de Janeiro, and on Oct 19, 2006, at the III Fórum Cearense de Software Livre

The latest presentation in English was on December 13, 2006, as part of UMeet 2006. A recording (IRC logs) is available here.

On April 23, 2009, it was first presented in Spanish, as part of , in Chitré, Herrera province, Panamá, in combination with A Beautiful Mind Meets Free Software and The Competitive Advantages of Free Software. Attendants took pictures and shot videos.

Thanks to the authors of the TV Show Casseta & Planeta for the inspiration, even if with a delay of 15 years or so :-) May Bussunda, probably the most well-known member of this great team of comedy writers and actors, who passed away in Germany during the Soccer World Cup, rest in peace and not be forgotten :-(

As of June, 2005, I came up with a newer presentation entitled A Beautiful Mind Meets Free Software: Game Theory, Competition and Cooperation. It was first presented to a wide audience on June 4, 2005, at FISL 6.0, after a presentation to prof Tiemi Sakata's students in Sorocaba. It was also presented at the III ESLAM, on October 13, 2005 in Manaus, AM (I took some pictures there); 5tas Jornadas Regionales de Software Libre, in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina, on Nov 21, 2005; Portalcon Software Livre's 1º GNU/Linux Day, in Americana, SP; at the Workshop Cearense de Software Livre e Mobilidade on December 13, 2005, in Fortaleza, CE; on Oct 20, 2006, at the III Fórum Cearense de Software Livre, also in Fortaleza; at the Brazilian finals of the 2006/2007 ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest, on November 11, 2006.

The paper on it was published at the Exact Sciences Colloquium at Uninove, on November 25, 2006. There's a nicer (IMHO) LaTeX rendering too. I've recorded the presentation audio (Ogg Speex format), in Portuguese, but the quality is unfortunately quite poor :-(

On April 23, 2009, it was first presented in Spanish, as part of , in Chitré, Herrera province, Panamá, in combination with The Freeing Power of the Second Finger and The Competitive Advantages of Free Software.

I'd like to thank my wife, Islene, for the drawings.

If you're interested in economics involving Free Software, in addition to the sites mentioned in the presentation, you may want to read:

• Arnold Polanski's General Public License a Rational Choice?
• Justin Pappas Johnson's Economics of Open Source Software

I wrote a paper entitled ``The Competitive Advantages of Free Software´´, originally for the Workshop about Free Software 2000, a parallel event to the 1st Free Software International Forum 2000. The originally published version is available as a gzipped postscript for ISO-A4 paper. An updated version (last modified on August 13, 2001, except for the addition of copyright and redistribution terms on July 19, 2002) is available as browsable html and pdf for letter-sized paper.

After many presentations all over from 2000 to 2002, it was later presented at FISL 4.0, some time in June, 2003; on Oct 20, 2006, at the III Fórum Cearense de Software Livre.

The latest version of the slides used in my presentation at several different conferences is available in pdf format.

On April 22, 2009, it was first presented in Spanish, as part of , in Panamá City, and on April 23, 2009, in Chitré, Herrera province, Panamá, in combination with The Freeing Power of the Second Finger and A Beautiful Mind Meets Free Software.

These are some Free Software projects I'm involved with (even though I'm mostly inactive on most of them, except for the first two):

• Linux-libre: a 100% Free version of the kernel Linux. GCC: the GNU Compiler Collection. I work for Red Hat, in the GCC development group.
• Guaraná: a Free implementation of the reflective architecture designed during my MSc.
• Libtool: a GNU portable shared and static library generator, started by Gordon Matzigkeit. I'm one of its current maintainers. Development snapshots are available here. Snapshots are in general untested, so use them with care.
• Autoconf: the GNU automatic software configuration package. I'm one of its current maintainers.
• Automake: the GNU Makefile generator, maintained by Tom Tromey and me.
• Ad HoC: an m4-based portable shell script generator, quite similar to GNU autoconf, but initially targeted at system administration (thus the name: Advanced Host Configuration), and now aiming at a broader set of applications (virtually anything :-). It's a new GNU project available via anonymous CVS from :pserver:anoncvs@subversions.gnu.org:/cvsroot/adhoc (empty password), module adhoc. The project still doesn't have a home page, but we've got a mailing-list. To subscribe, send a message to adhoc-request@gnu.org with subscribe in the body. A pre-release containing one rather involving example and virtually no user-oriented documentation :-(, is available here. Snapshots are in general untested, so use them with care.
• Amanda: a backup system, originally by Jaime da Silva. I'm one of its current maintainers. Development snapshots are no longer available, since there is anonymous read-only access to the CVS tree.
• CVS Utilities: a couple of CVS-related scripts to ease the creation and installation of patches, and the management of CVS trees. The CVS tree is available at :pserver:anoncvs@subversions.gnu.org:/cvsroot/cvs-utils (empty password), module cvs-utils. It's got a mailing list for general discussion (send the word subscribe to cvs-utils-request@gnu.org to subscribe) and another for CVS commit messages. It may eventually merge with Pavel Roskin's cvsutils, a couple of scripts that implement ``disconnected´´ CVS operations.
• LVreorg: A shell script that moves logical extents in a GNU/Linux LVM volume group so as to conform with a specification given in an input file. Useful after you pvmove the contents of a disk, replace it, and want to get back to what you had before. Last updated Feb 10, 2003.
• rpmdup-reinstall: A shell script that attempts to identify partial updates on a system by looking for multiply-installed packages, downloading updated versions with up2date and re-installing them. Last updated Mar 7, 2004.
• DNAcode: A joke program that converts DNA sequences from/to base64 and plain text.

Some other projects I've already contributed to in the past, or would like to contribute to in the future, if I manage to get more than 24 hours a day :-)

• Kaffe: a Free Java Virtual Machine, started by Tim Wilkinson, one of the founders of Transvirtual Technologies.
• SAMBA: a Free implementation of the SMB protocol, that allows Unix hosts to share files with MS-Windows hosts.
• Lilypond: the GNU music typesetting program, by Han-Wen Nienhuys and Jan Nieuwenhuizen.
• CIVS: the Condorcet Internet Voting System, by Andrew C. Myers. I stripped it down such that FSFLA could use it to compute Condorcet/Schulze voting results without the need for setting up web-based voting.

You may find some source and binary packages for Red Hat Linux that I've packaged here.

I've written some notes on addressing the few problems I ran into while setting up Fedora Core 3 Test 3 on my (then) shiny new Compaq Presario r3004 Athlon64 notebook. They apply to Fedora Core 3 as well.

Fedora Core 2 shipped without Firewire modules because they were severely broken in the upstream kernel. Kernel updates are fixed, but if you want to install it or use the original kernels, read this.

I've taught a short Java course in the Second Brazilian Symposium on Programming Languages. The errata of the course notes (in Portuguese) are available on-line. If you want a copy of the (outdated) course notes (also in Portuguese), please let me know.

Between 1995 and 1997, I taught Maths in a school that helps poor students improve their chances of succeeding in the College Entrance Examination (Vestibular). You may find out more about this social project and read its monthly publication in the home page of Cursinho DCE (in Portuguese).

You may find some jokes and funny stories I have collected here.

My snail-mail address and my Gnu Privacy Guard public key are available.